‘Like We Don’t Have Enough Problems’: Trash Piles Up in Athens

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A worker sprayed disinfectant on a pile of garbage in Piraeus, near Athens, on Thursday.CreditPetros Giannakouris/Associated Press

By Niki Kitsantonis

June 29, 2017

ATHENS — The peak tourist season is beginning in Athens, but visitors to the ancient city on Thursday were confronted with a monument to modern-day Greece: the mountains of garbage festering on the streets of the capital, where a strike by state sanitation workers over job security entered its 13th day amid an oppressive heat wave.

This is not the first time that Greeks have been forced to circumnavigate piles of trash on sidewalks because of a protracted strike. But the unseasonably high temperatures, which topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday and are expected to climb higher over the weekend, have created an exceptionally stifling and fragrant atmosphere for Athenians and for tourists.

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Overflowing bins on the coast near Athens on Wednesday.CreditPetros Giannakouris/Associated Press

“It’s an absolute nightmare, like we don’t have enough problems,” said Maria Saranti, 62, a retired teacher, as she gingerly added a bag of garbage at the foot of a pile in Pangrati, a neighborhood near central Athens. “God knows what’s under all that, mice, snakes, it doesn’t bear thinking of,” she added.

Union leaders agreed on Thursday to end the strike, but it is expected to take at least three days to clear the decaying, reeking piles that have been left behind. For two weeks, striking workers blocked the entrances to garbage truck depots and landfills in Athens and around the country, and thousands of tons of refuse piled up around trash bins, rotting in the scorching heat.

The actions peaked on Thursday morning, when union leaders led a march of striking workers to Parliament, condemning cuts imposed on Greece by its international creditors and demanding permanent jobs for thousands of workers on short-term contracts that have expired.

Before the announcement that the strike was over, the head of the garbage collectors’ union Poe-Ota, Nikos Trakas, said workers had already achieved a victory because “the people are on our side.”

Not all Athenians agreed. “It’s outrageous how they think they can hold us hostage like this,” said Andreas Markatos, 21, an economics student. “It’s the government’s fault too — they should have solved this problem years ago — but the unionists make me sick,’’ he said.

“They’ll have to clean it all up in a few days either way,” he added.

The strike prompted warnings about the threat to Greeks, both physical and financial. The country’s health watchdog warned about a public health risk posed by tons of garbage rotting in the sun, and the tourism minister, Elena Kountoura, had warned of “ugly consequences” if the situation was not resolved quickly.

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Thousands of tons of garbage have accumulated since the strike began 13 days ago.CreditPetros Giannakouris/Associated Press

Tourism is one of the few dynamic sectors in the Greek economy, which has contracted by a fifth since the country signed its first international bailout in 2010.

Even though the strike is over, there may be further headaches for the government before the problem is solved.

Last month, a top Greek court ruled against government plans to extend short-term contracts for state sanitation workers. And the country’s international creditors, who have overseen drastic cuts to state spending over the last seven years, are unlikely to accept the new hirings without demanding cuts in other sectors. That could prompt a fresh round of protests, and more upheaval.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: On Top of Greece’s Problems, Trash Piled High. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe